Atlantis

Atlantis

Atlantis, the extraordinary ancient city/continent said to have sunk into the sea after a disaster, is an example of an unproven belief that may be more fun than threatening. So what if some people believe in a mythical place that was more technologically advanced than we are today and spawned all the great ancient civilizations? What’s the harm?

The problem is that Atlantis belief is a symptom of something more serious. Falling for this claim can be viewed as a wailing alarm that indicates something is wrong with a person’s thinking process. If Atlantis belief makes it into one’s head, then it means that one’s skepticism force field is either switched off or turned down way too low. After all, if one is capable of believing this claim—despite all of its logical problems and a total absence of proof—then it’s likely not going to take much of a leap for this person to believe in a potentially dangerous medical product, invest in scams, or be exploited in a variety of ways by unscrupulous people and organizations. Alone, such beliefs may initially appear to be harmless. But seemingly benign claims may lead people deeper into a variety of weird beliefs and delusions that do cause harm. For example, Atlantis belief has an odd connection to unproven New Age claims about crystals having healing powers. How easy would it be for some people, encouraged by their Atlantis belief, to begin wasting time and money on crystals? This could easily lead to serious problems if people choose crystals over medical science. A “harmless” belief in Atlantis could become a very dangerous belief in the medical value of overpriced rocks.

By the way, some readers may suspect that Atlantis is a fringe belief in the extreme, one not worth addressing because it involves so few people. According to surveys, however, this is not so. A 2006 Baylor study, for example, found that more than 40 percent of American adults believe in “ancient advanced civilizations such as Atlantis.” More alarming than that, however, is another study that found 16 percent of high-school science teachers believe in Atlantis.

As is so often the case when evidence is not involved, the description of a belief varies wildly and depends on which believer one asks. Some Atlantis believers say it was a prominent city/continent that existed several thousand years ago and was advanced far beyond its ancient peers and, some say, even beyond twenty-first-century civilization. For example, some claim that the Atlanteans had nuclear weapons, aircraft, and energy-production technology that was far superior to ours today. Some believers go so far as to claim that extraterrestrials were/are involved with Atlantis either as visitors or were the Atlanteans themselves. Virtually all believers agree that the city/continent vanished due to a catastrophic event such as an earthquake or a tsunami. Today it is supposed to rest on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea, at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, or maybe under antarctic ice somewhere, awaiting discovery. Another popular component to the myth is that before its violent end, Atlantis spawned satellite cultures that were the seeds of modern civilization. One version says we are the descendants of inferior slaves who escaped just before disaster struck the city. Either way, all people today are deeply connected to Atlantis. Okay, I admit it, this is another great story. I get why people might feel an urge to believe it. But if you think first, it’s not quite so impressive.

Before we consider some of the reasons why doubt is in order, let’s be clear about something important: Atlantis has not been discovered, and no compelling archaeological or historical evidence for it has ever been produced by anyone. This needs to be stated because many people seem to think it has been found or, at the very least, there is enough evidence to confirm that it did exist. Many people have likely been misled about the status of Atlantis because its discovery or near-discovery is reported frequently by the mainstream news media. Consider these headlines: TSUNAMI CLUE TO ATLANTIS FOUND; SATELLITE IMAGES “SHOW ATLANTIS”; ATLANTIS “OBVIOUSLY NEAR GIBRALTAR.” I chose these headlines specifically because they all come from the BBC, one of the world’s most respected and trustworthy news organizations. In fairness, the BBC did place quote marks around key words within two of these headlines. This is to shift the burden of the claim off of the BBC and onto some person who made the claim. Also, in many cases, reports like this usually do reveal somewhere in the text of the article that nothing of consequence has been found and absolutely nothing about Atlantis has been confirmed. These kinds of reports have always turned out to be nothing more than an “exciting lead,” a “possible clue,” or “encouraging data”—anything but actual artifacts that confirm the existence of Atlantis. The damage is done, however, because many people see headlines like these and don’t bother to read the entire article, or, if they do, can still be deeply influenced by the eye-catching headline. If they don’t quite turn into confident Atlantis believers, they still might come away with the false impression that there must be something to this claim. But, as we are about to see, there is nothing here but a tall tale.

The only references to Atlantis in ancient times come from an impressive source: Plato, one of history’s great philosophers. He mentions the city in two of his dialogues, the Timaeus and the Critias. But what did he actually communicate about Atlantis? It seems that for the purposes of teaching a lesson, Plato referred to an old “story” about a city-state that was too militaristic and too arrogant for its own good. This suggests that he wasn’t presenting a serious historical report on a real place and real people. He was almost certainly using a fictional tale to help make a point to the people he was addressing. There is nothing about Plato’s mention of Atlantis that makes the case for its existence. This view is supported by the fact that there is total silence about Atlantis from the rest of the ancient world. Atlantis was supposed to have been vastly superior in technology, science, and culture, and to have given rise to all other great civilizations, yet there is no mention of it from the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Romans, Sumerians, Babylonians, Ionians, Macedonians, and so on. Archaeologist Kenneth L. Feder hammers this point home in his excellent book, Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology: “You will not read the discourses of modern historians arguing for or disputing the historicity of The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, because these are understood, of course, to be works of fiction. In much the same way, Greek historians who followed Plato did not feel the need even to discuss his story of Atlantis; they understood it as the work of fiction Plato intended it to be.”

An important thing to keep in mind is that believers often try to lure skeptics into arguing against things they don’t even oppose. For example, I have had discussions with Atlantis believers who, after becoming frustrated by their failure to convince me, changed course and accused me of being close-minded, antiscience, and unwilling to consider the possibility that underwater archaeologists might find an ancient city one day, maybe even one that was called Atlantis. Of course they might. I am a big fan of underwater archaeology. I have interviewed Bob Ballard, discoverer of the Titanic and the Galapagos Rift hydrothermal vents, and I share his enthusiasm and optimism for underwater archaeology’s potential. We have been a coastal-dwelling and seafaring people for a long, long time. Lakes, seas, and oceans undoubtedly hide many amazing artifacts that can shed new light on our past. Furthermore, given the volatile nature of our world and its changing shorelines, the claim that an ancient city is lying in ruins underwater somewhere is not only reasonable, it’s very likely to be true! Who knows? Maybe there is even a city that was named “Atlantis” out there. But until somebody finds it, we don’t know. And if the ruins of such a city are found, that still would not prove that it had once been inhabited by an advanced race of people or some alien species. To stay true to the real world, we have to ask the right questions, hold out for evidence, and not allow ourselves to be sidetracked by claims we’re not refuting—in other words, we need to try to become and remain good skeptics.